This invention relates to a process for the production of hydroquinone by the electrolytic reduction of nitrobenzene to amino products and the hydrolysis of the amino products to hydroquinone.
Hydroquinone has the characteristic of being easily oxidized to quinone and the quinone-like products. The principal large scale use of hydroquinone is as a photographic developer, but it is also used as a stabilizer and as an antioxidant for substances such as fats, oils, whole milk powders, vitamins, and the like.
Hydroquinone has been produced heretofore commercially by the oxidation of aniline in sulfuric acid with manganese dioxide or sodium dichromate to quinone and the reduction of the quinone with iron dust to hydroquinone. It has been suggested that hydroquinone can be produced by the electrolytic oxidation of benzene to quinone in the presence of sulfuric acid, using a lead anode and a lead cathode, and then the reduction of the quinone to hydroquinone. My copending application Ser. No. 267,534 describes the production of hydroquinone by the hydrolysis of para-aminophenol.